Egypt’s military dissolved Parliament and suspended the Constitution today, meeting two key demands of the protesters in Tahrir Square. The military said they would hold onto power for six months, or until elections were held. Constitutional changes would be offered in a referendum.

Nobody really knows where this is going to lead in Egypt, much less around the region. Will the future reveal a change in leadership or what Anthony Shadid calls a “new notion of citizenship,” a change in how Arabs view their role within the state. Will Arabs across the region use the power of engagement to build a society that can realize their very human goals? Will they be able to build a society that fulfills their own conception of dignity? And what if they government that emerges doesn’t fit with these ideals?

Protesters in Cairo were blunter. One leader had fallen, but some worried about a military that sought to claim the mantle of the revolution even as it remained a bulwark of the old order. Asked what they would do if it imposed its own brand of rule, Ahmed Sleem, an organizer with an opposition group led by Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate, said simply, “We know the way to Tahrir Square.”

Egypt’s revolution earned many names in 18 days: Revolution of the Youth, of the People, of Anger, of Freedom, of the Hungry, and most poetically, the Revolution of Light. In the end, it was called the January 25 Revolution, the date of the first protest. In that, it was a departure from another revolution, that of July 26, when Gamal Abdel Nasser and fellow officers seized power from a decadent king and mobilized Egypt for wars with Israel. It evolved into something far less ambitious: a mantra of security and stability, in which Egyptians and many Arabs were forced to give up their rights.

Even in his very last days, Mr. Mubarak understood the conflict in those terms; in his last speech to the nation, he spoke of security and stability 10 times. The protesters in Cairo wrecked the regional formula, though their ambitions have yet to offer a paradigm to replace it. “Leaders in the Arab world are weaker now,” said Sadiq al-Azm, a prominent Syrian thinker and writer.

Arab leaders recognize this but aren’t sure how to approach it. Iran and tiny Bahrain will see protests on Monday; Bahrain’s king responded by literally handing $2,650 to every Bahraini family. Yemen’s President promised more concessions to protests which have been going on for a few weeks. In Algeria, the government promised to lift the emergency law but did not approve a protest held yesterday, which 30,000 riot police broke up in violent clashes. The country shut down the Internet in reaction to the protests. Palestinian leaders announced elections in September and the chief negotiator with Israel, Saeb Erekat, tendered his resignation.

I don’t know if you can necessarily call this an uprising for democracy so much as an uprising for hope. Poor youth throughout the Arab world view their lives with despair. Governments have shed their responsibility to their citizens, and only graft and connections can allow for social mobility. This could breed alienation and susceptibility to extremism or nonviolent street action. Only in the past month has the latter prevailed, and this crack in the foundation has yielded a new model for hope in the region. This model fits better on some countries, like Egypt and Tunisia which have some sense of nationalism, rather than others like the Gulf states (which can buy off their people) or more repressive regimes like Iran or Syria.

That doesn’t mean that the Egyptian uprising will necessarily end in anything like democracy, and the same goes for the rest of the region. But it feels like a different model, one motivated by worker grievances and the struggle just to have a normal life where effort and talent are rewarded. Activism and democracy promotion has led to extremism elsewhere in the Arab world; that doesn’t need to happen in Egypt or Tunisia or elsewhere. The binary equation of authoritarianism versus Islamism, the way autocrats have kept power and the support of Western governments for decades, doesn’t have to hold. Serve the people, respect their individual human and civil rights, and you can have a different country.

“I think the most important challenge for Egypt the next few years is how to build a new civil culture,” said Hanna Grace, an opposition leader. “Not military, not religious, but a civil culture. How do you build a secular modern state for religious people?”

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to “After the Uprising, a Hope for a New Civil Society in the Arab World”

Egypt’s military rejects swift transfer of power and suspends constitution
Ruling military council intends to retain power for six months or longer while elections are scheduled and will rule by decree

“In a sign that the army will only tolerate a limited challenge to its power, it is expected to issue a communique on Monday saying that it will crack down on those creating “chaos and disorder” as well as effectively banning strikes.”

One thing we can be sure of: The United States and Israel will certainly try to inject themselves into the process in order to force people into creating a government that will again be a strong ally hapless patsy of US/Israel like the Mubarak government was.

Americans are so clueless and spoon fed Fox lies, they still have no clue about the differences between Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians. All Arabs are the “jihadist”come to kill with swords until Christian convert.

that’s all most Americans “know” about Arabs. whatever Glen Beck/Fox/Murdoch wants us to know.

All i hear is the “Muslim Brotherhood” is out to get us. same us vs. them of black and white in the Southern Strategy.

Egypt’s only chance is some truly enlightened transitional leadership. So far the signs aren’t good.

In the West Bank Abbas has rejiggered the election laws to make it very difficult for Hamas to win. Municipal elections will be held first, to test the waters. Only after that will they decide whether to proceed to parliamentary and presidental elections, which will now be by national slate rather than district voting. Israel and the U.S. can be expected to try to manipulate the results. Last time, in 2006, Israel denied permission for Hamas candidates to travel, prevented Jerusalem from voting, and ultimately rounded up dozens of newly-elected Hamas MPs. Some of those MPs are still in military prisons in Israel.

Wonder how many of those who voted to continue this kind of “aid” (barf!) will also vote to cut Social Security and Medicare?

US Military Aid Paid for Mubarak’s Yacht Repairs

“As Hosni Mubarak clings to CEDES! power in Cairo and the US figures out what to do with its Middle East ally, critics all over the world are looking askance at America’s estimated $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Egypt. ProPublica blogger and MJ alum Marian Wang recently laid out how US aid gets distributed—and who benefits from it the most—in the region. But besides some fancy tanks and attack jets, what’s it buy, exactly? Well, among other things, it purchased some Freedom. That’s the name of the Egyptian presidential yacht—a storied steamer that Hosni Mubarak reportedly takes out just a few times a year, and that’s so big it dwarfs the gauche ocean cruisers of every US billionaire, from Larry Ellison and Paul Allen to Steve Forbes and the Gettys. And according to US military investigators, money from Congress keeps Mubarak’s Freedom ship chugging along.”

The big mistake that the Egyptian government made, and I think other Arab governments was allowing their citizens to learn how to read. Always dangerous. The American South knew better, They kept their poor whites and blacks functionally illiterate for 80 years, and it worked. There’s a model out there. The Republican Party understands it and is trying to implement it. It’s easier than it was in the days before television.